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The things people do to try to avoid their T fare

Transit Police report arresting a guy who donned one of those bright orange vests T workers often wear in an attempt to evade paying to get on the Orange Line at Back Bay.

"Nice try," police said laconically.

According to police, Willie Gill, for some reason in town from Springfield, piggybacked behind a paying customer around 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Video shows he even waved at somebody before he tried to fare evade. Police say officers, however, were immediately suspicious because actual T workers have their own passes:

Gill insisted he was a T employee and kept his ruse going for several minutes. Based on the information Gill supplied of being a MBTA employee officers were skeptical. Eventually officers discovered Gill was not in fact an employee. Gill also furnished several different names to the officers in an attempt to mask his true identity. The officers were deligent and ultimately ascertained Gill's true name which revealed an outstanding warrant in existence for his arrest. The warrant issued from Barnstable District Court, coincidently enough, was for providing a false name to police.

That was good enough for a free ride to Transit Police HQ for booking.

Comments

Good job by the T cops - but if they really want to crack down on piggy-backing at Back Bay, they should patrol the gate at the platform level that leads to the tunnel under Dartmouth Street to Copley Place. I've seen nothing but fare evasion parties and piggy-backing there.